Creating and validating a pneumococcal vaccination registry.

Healthy People 2010 set a goal of 90% vaccination rate for pneumococcal vaccine in elderly patients. We developed a keyword search, using pharmacy orders for Pneumovax as a gold standard, to determine patient eligibility for a computerized pneumococcal vaccination registry. The keyword search captured 98% of vaccinations in the validation dataset. A total of 4,768 patients matched at least one keyword in the search and were added to the immunization registry. Through our search, we found a 63% vaccination rate in the primary care patient population older than 65, leaving 37% of the high risk population still needing vaccinations.